Comic Cuts was published each week
for 63 years, finally finishing with issue 3,006 on 12 September 1953.

In
1888 a Victorian gentleman called Alfred Charles William Harmsworth launched
a magazine called Answers to Correspondants, (Answers
for short) which, while having nothing to do with comics, made him enough
money to start a new title called Comic Cuts (17 May
1890).

Answers
was produced from a small room on the first floor of 26 Paternoster
Square in London: later moving to Tudor Street and then into 108 Fleet
Street. These moves were entirely due to the expansion in the business
of the those early days.

Comic
Cuts was the first halfpenny comic paper (half the price of its
rivals), and included cartoons and strips mainly taken from American humour
papers: so popular was it, that by 1892 Harmsworth could boast a readership
of two and half million a week! With the money Harmsworth started a string
of juvenile papers, including Illustrated Chips,The
Wonder, Funny Wonder, Puck,
Merry and Bright, and the short lived Firefly,
and also introduced the idea of original comic art, as new printing methods,
notably roto-gravure, saw the end of the old wood-block technique. Simply
put, printing was easier. In 1901 with a readership that AP proudly touted
as being from cradle to grave, they opened a huge printing works at Lavingdon
Street, Southwark, Gravesend. Here their first experiments were carried
out in colour printing. The results can be seen on the extravagant and
beautiful covers of Rainbow.

However,
the "classical" English tradition for juvenile literature at
this time was the Story Paper, not
the Comic. Since the late 18th century various
magazines aimed at the juvenile or young adult market had been published:
some for reasons of "improvement", but by far the more popular
were the Penny Dreadfuls with their garish covers and tales of murder
and daring-do featuring the likes of Jack Harkaway, Charles
Peace (notorious burglar), Dance of Death (about the gallows),
and general murder and mayhem.

An original Ben Turpin and Charlie Conklin
rough for Film Fun by William
(Bill) Radford: circa 1927. Note blue tick of approval.

Harmsworth
declared war on the Penny Dreadfuls of his rivals and fired back with
clean and wholesome titles like Marvel (1893), Union
Jack (1894), Pluck (1894) and The Boys'
Friend (1895). They all featured good clean literature (pirates,
monsters of the deep, tales of the Empire, desert islands etc.). This
tradition of written story papers with a couple of spot art illustrations
continued right up until the paper shortages of the 1940's killed off
many of the titles. Click here to see a list of the AP/Fleetway Story
Papers.

In
1901, Harmsworth's many publishing business' were brought together and
called The Amalgamated Press (AP). Harmsworth went on to found the Daily
Mirror newspaper, and eventually became owner of The
Times newspaper, he was later knighted becoming Lord Northcliffe.
On his death in 1922, The Amalgamated Press was one of the largest publishers
in the world, and they remained faithful to their original tenet: they
were also the largest publishers of childrens comics.

By
1925 the building that was to become known as the home of the AP was nearing
completion - Fleetway House, Farringdon Street - and it was from there
that their many products were created, and to where the many artists submitted
their work.

Like any other company, in order to remain profitable, you have to learn
to adapt to what's going on around you. This AP did quite well. For instance
the coming of silent film and the plethora of new stars that were exciting
the population led to them starting the comic Film Fun
(17 January 1920) and four months later Kinema Comic featuring
the comic adventures of various screen stars such as Monty Banks, Ben
Turpin, and with time, Harold Lloyd and Laurel and Hardy. Kinema
Comic merged with Film Fun in 1932.

The
first editor of Film Fun was Frederick George Cordwell,
who insisted that his artists come up with the ideas for one of the many
character strips featured in the comic. These were done as roughs and
then sent to Fleetway House, where Cordwell would either accept or destroy
depending upon circumstances. If accepted, the original rough (usually
marked "OK" or ticked with a blue pencil) would be returned
to the artist with a perumptory note. The artist would then turn his rough
into a finished artboard for publishing.

On
the basis that if it works once, it will probably work again, the success
of Film Fun would lead AP in time to release Radio
Fun (15 October 1938) and the not so successful TV Fun
(19 September 1953).

On
the verge of the second world war, AP released another comic that would
change forever the way that British children would view comics - its name
was Knock-out, but it lost the hyphen within a year to
become Knockout. This comic featured wonderful artwork
by the likes of Eric Parker, Derek Eyles, H.M. Brock, Heath Robinson and
Jesus Blasco and the emphasis was
firmly on adventure. Knockout featured such strips as
Sexton Blake, Dick Turpin, and historical adaptations
like The Black Arrow and Capt. Flame by academy artist
Sep Scott. It is interesting to note that many of the characters used
by AP in their comics, originally featured in the story papers. Billy
Bunter started in Magnet, whilst Sexton Blake,
Dick Turpin and Buffalo Bill had all appeared in the
story papers at one time or another.

Colin Merritt original board. Buffalo Bill
- Comet Nr. 344 (1955)

Please
remember though, that AP did not publish just children's comics: they
continued to publish the juvenile story
papers, as well as magazines and newspapers covering a wide variety
of subjects for adults, and they were always on the look-out to pick up
small or ailing publishers. In 1942 Amalgamated Press took control of
US publisher Conde Nast Publications on the founders death. Conde Nast
were the publishers of such well known fashion magazine titles as Vogue
and Vanity Fair. In 1959 AP re-sold Conde Nast Publications
for a profit.

So
it was that two of the most popular comic titles of the 1950's were acquired
by AP, Comet and Sun. Both these titles
were actually started by J.B. Allen just after the war, but when AP took
over J.B. Allen's titles in 1949 they re-vamped the strips (reducing the
size of the comic along the way) and exchanged the "funnies"
strips of Allen with such great adventure strips as Battler Britton,
Billy the Kid, Robin Hood, Kit Carson and Dick
Turpin.

In
1949 AP released in Australia a series of comics in a standard American
comic size, with black and white interiors. These were entitled Cowboy
Comics and featured Kit Carson, Buck Jones,
Billy the Kid and Tim Holt. The sales in Austrialia
encouraged them to release the series in the UK, however there was a problem
- no available printing presses. The odd size of the UK comic (5.5 inches
x 7 inches or 13.5cms x 17.6cms) was governed by the fact that the only
available printing press was that used by a story paper called the Sexton
Blake Library - which had the same size. Another "revolution"
for its time was that the Cowboy Comics had 68 pages
and could accomodate either 2-3 short stories or one complete one. Taking
already popular characters such as Kit Carson and Buck Jones
AP soon realised that it had a success on its hands. Over the ensuing
years these characters would be joined by the Kansas Kid, Davy
Crockett and some odd appearances by The Cisco Kid, Lucky
Lannigan and Buffalo Bill.

Thriller Picture Library Nr. 255
(1959) - Robin Hood, Liitle John and the evil Prince John by John
Millar Watt. Original board

The
success of Knockout, Sun and Comet,
as well as Cowboy Comics, soon prompted AP to start two
more "Library" comics: Thriller Comics (later
to become Thriller Picture Library) featuring historical
swashbuckling adventures of The Three Musketeers, Dick Turpin,
Robin Hood, Claude Duval, as well as interpretations
of classical novels, whilst Super Detective Library featured
mystery and detective adventures with Bulldog Drummond, The
Saint, Sherlock Holmes (from a dissapointing US strip),
and, creme de la creme, the space sleuth Rick Random drawn
by a young artist called Ron Turner.

Ron Embleton cover depicting The Grendall
for Look and Learn. Original board

The
1950's and early 60's were undoubtably the hay days of AP. The library
sized comics (published at a rate varying between 2-4 issues a month)
led to other popular (and as it turned out, very long running) titles
being released particularly in the war genre. This, and the continued
popularity of their weekly comics, led to a shortage of available British
artists to fill the gap. Thus it was that comic
artists were employed from all over Europe and South America, mostly,
but not exclusively, via the art agencies such as D'Ami.

As
the decade of the 1950's moved into its close the buying, merging and
selling of publishing houses increased. The reasons for this are simple
enough, there were many titles on the market all vying for the attention
of the consumer - who's pocket money was limited and had other calls upon
it such as Lucky Bags and toys! TV was also starting to make in-roads
into children's activities and reading was, even then, beginning to wain,
although it would be another 40 years until computer games and DVDs would
undermine the weekly sales of comics. AP was bought up by the Mirror Group
in 1959 - and in the same year AP's rival publishing company, Hulton (publisher
of Dan Dare's flagship Eagle) was taken over
by Odhams Press. One year later Odhams was renamed Longacre Press (1960).
One year further on (1961) the Mirror Group (which now included AP) took
over Longacre Press and with it the title Eagle and ownership
of Dan Dare.

Capt. Hurricane star of Valiant
(19 August 1967). Original board by Geoff Campion.

In
1963 the Mirror Group was renamed International Publishing Corporation
Ltd (IPC): so now IPC owned the title to such classic comics as Buster,
Eagle, Harold Hare's Own Paper, Lion,
Mirabelle, and a host of other comics, as well as such
diverse strips as Dan Dare, Capt. Condor (who had started
as rivals by different publishers), The Steel Claw, Capt.
Hurricane and Jack and Jill. New comic titles were started,
old comic titles were merged or ceased altogether. The name of Fleetway
was still used to identify the comics magazine publishing arm of IPC,
although some comics were published in IPC's name.

One
comic, and probably the last comic title to be produced by IPC, was destined
to be Britain's best selling modern comic - 2000AD which
started in 1977 and featured the revived Dan Dare and a new character
Judge Dredd.

In
1987 all comics were collected into the Fleetway arm and sold to Robert
Maxwell. In 1991, the Fleetway Division was bought from Maxwell by Egmont
, who merged it with their own British based comic publishing division,
London Editions, to create Fleetway Editions. At some point after 2002
the name of Fleetway Editions ceased to be used by Egmont on its publications.
Fleetway House was re-named Fleetway Egmont House, and our story is all
but over. 2000AD is now published by Egmont under license.

Glenn Fabry cover from Crisis
Nr. 40 - original board.

It
could be said that the AP/Fleetway era (encompassing a number of different
name changes and amalgamations) lasted 110 years.

Things
will never be the same again.

Notes:

If anyone would like to know more about the publishing
empire founded by Alfred Harmsworth (Lord Northcliffe) they can
do no better than consult the following books. Be warned though,
there is no mention of the comics published by Harmsworth, just
the newspaper empire:

The Romance of the Amalgamated Press
compiled by George Dilnot (AP:1925)